

The Crown Refs Podcast
Paul Diasparra
The Crown Refs Podcast is the ultimate audio experience for basketball officials looking to elevate their craft, build confidence, and achieve long-term success on and off the court. Hosted by Paul Diasparra, this podcast helps referees master their skills, refine their judgment, and develop a strong officiating mindset. It features top names in officiating like Joey Crawford, Roger Ayers, Dee Kantner, Maia Chaka, Lisa Mattingly, Tyler Ford, Penny Davis, Reggie Greenwood, Scott Foster, Al Battista, Crystal Hogan, Bo Boroski, Gary Vee, Clarence Armstrong, and more. #Servethegame
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 1, 2021 โข 3min
#213 CROWN REFS MENTOR | weekly calls & office hours | monthly podcast event with special guests
How would you like to be part of a family-like community of officials who meet weekly to support, develop and empower each other to be great? How would you like to be part of the Crown Refs Officiating Team? How would you like to be featured in our content, help curate topics for our discussions and/or contribute to our podcast?
Crown Refs MENTOR will meet weekly on a private discord voice channel for wide range of officiating development from rapid responses and communications training, to virtual group signal school, play sharing & film review, live Q & A, and many other topical discussions. In addition, members of the mentor tier gain access to participate in a monthly live podcast event with featured special guests.
And since the Mentor tier is like Crown Refs University it's only right that we offer weekly office hours for officials which will be available for one-to-one or small group learning. The group will also keep a tracker of the content discussed in each weekly session on a google drive to be shared an edited by the group.
Think of this tier as a year-round camp and training clinic but more importantly an oppourtunity to get directly involved with an amazing community of dedicated officials. Welcome to Crown Refs Team U. #mentor
Click below to become a Patron of Crown Refs
patreon.com/crownrefs
Click below to schedule your 15 minute 1-to-1 call with me to discuss more details about Patreon and which tier works best to meet your developmental needs
https://calendly.com/crownrefs/15min?month=2021-08

Sep 1, 2021 โข 3min
#212 CROWN REFS PLUS | REFFLIX | The Netflix of Officiating | The full Library of CR content
Crown Refs PLUS features our full library of content including podcasts, and our new catalog of Patreon Original shows and series with never before seen officiating content.
Our growing show list includes No Offseason, Through the Lens, Signal School, CR Vlog, Coach D's Court, The Wonderful Women of Officiating, Game Notes, Courtside Conversations, Voices from the Community, Refs Can Ball, The Camp Commute, Signature Series of Guests, Crown Classics and many more shows in production.
Patrons of the PLUS tier also gain access to read Crown Refs Magazine articles, our Game Notes Quotes written series, and see video tutorials, instructional slides, short clips, exclusive bonus scenes and livestreams.
If the PRO tier is our basic cable package than the PLUS tier is our full line-up of movie channels and new shows. #REFFLIX
Click below to become a Patron of Crown Refs
patreon.com/crownrefs
Click below to schedule your 15 minute 1-to-1 call with me to discuss more details about Patreon and which tier works best to meet your developmental needs
https://calendly.com/crownrefs/15min?month=2021-08

Sep 1, 2021 โข 2min
#211 CROWN REFS PRO | Listen to our podcast | Watch short videos | join our Discord
Thank you for your continued support and after 159 public episodes of the Audio Experience for Basketball Officials we've taken the Crown Refs Podcast private to this amazing platform for creators called Patreon.
Crown Refs PRO unlocks over 40 new podcast episodes and gains you access to future Patron-only episodes that we release (historically 4-5 per month) on Patreon's private RSS feed. This tier also includes some short-form video content like podcast highlights, shorts clips, daily stories, and the new shows, courtside conversations, & voices from the community.
You'll also have access to our incredible private chat community on The Crown Refs Discord server. Our server features over 10 different topic channels to have conversations ranging from mindset, rapid-responses, ncaa-women's-talk, nfhs-talk, pro-rules-talk, play-sharing-channel, fiba-chat, fitness-nutrition, and a more. We inspire to build the Netflix for officials (Refflix), so think of this tier as the basic cable package minus the movie channels.
Click below to become a Patron of Crown Refs
patreon.com/crownrefs
Click below to schedule your 15 minute 1-to-1 call with me to discuss more details about Patreon and which tier works best to meet your developmental needs
https://calendly.com/crownrefs/15min?month=2021-08

Sep 1, 2021 โข 28min
#209 Mentor Sessions 2 | Will Fried | Bethesda, MD
Will Fried, is entering his 6th-year officiating originally from Bethesda, MD, and currently residing in Hays, Kansas. He comes to Crown Refs MENTOR with the intentions of growing his officiating skills and becoming part of a supportive community of officials who all route for each other. โฃ
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Will is looking to improve his confidence, game management skills, mechanics & signals, as well as adding more patience and whistle discipline. โฃ
In this episode, we get to learn more about Will and the obstacles he's had to overcome being an official on the autism spectrum. โฃ
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He also shares with us which aspects of the game are most challenging to him including communicating the right phrases to coaches and managing the wide range of personalities throughout the game. โฃ
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We also talked about not letting bad partners affect us, the improvement of his recall, and tuning his mechanics even better through our group signal school.

Sep 1, 2021 โข 34min
#208 Mentor Sessions 1 | Adam Zohni | Richmond Hill, Ontario
We are excited to launch our new private community for officials and our developmental training program called Crown Refs MENTOR. โฃ
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Adam Zohni is a long-time supporter and passionate 5th-year official from Toronto, CN, who was one of the first officials to sign up for our MENTOR tier. So after a few years of exchanging messages online, we finally had the opportunity to sit down and meet for our first mentor session.โฃ
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In this episode, we discuss why he decided to join Crown Refs MENTOR and some of the things that he's looking to gain from being part of the new community. We also reviewed his referee profile, where he listed his biggest areas of growth that he's looking to improve on. โฃ
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His most difficult plays are calling flagrant fouls and managing unsportsmanlike technical fouls with players and coaches. He's focused on slowing down and being emotionless to have a greater sense of control in those hostile moments. We also go over some differences between FIBA and NFHS, proper time-out mechanics, and tips for calling double fouls.โฃ
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Special thanks to Adam, Zack, Carmela, Pedro, Ryan, Lance, Will, Ken, Aaron, Joseph, Josiah, Chris, Tony, John, William, Alice, Jon, Justin, Luke, Jason, Scott, James, Korbin, Corbin, Isaiah, and every other official who has joined us for this next chapter of Crown Refs content. #servethegame

Aug 22, 2021 โข 1h 23min
#207 Welcome to Patreon | 45 new episodes available on Patreon.com/crownrefs | Community News Show
๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ is excited to introduce 2 amazing apps to the referee industry, ๐๐๐ฉ๐ง๐๐ค๐ฃ & ๐ฟ๐๐จ๐๐ค๐ง๐, as we launch our new private community for basketball officials. ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป is our versatile content platform that features a wide range of media including over 45 new podcasts, over 85 new videos, and over 12 new shows & series guaranteed to develop & inspire referees who love the craft of officiating.โฃ
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๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป.๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ/๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ has been preloaded with over 150 new posts and will continue to be the main home for our podcasts, videos, and written work moving forward. If our new library of content wasnโt enough all ๐๐ข๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด of Crown Refs on ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป also receive access to join the private chat community for basketball officials on our ๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ Server. โฃ
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The ๐พ๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐๐๐จ ๐ฟ๐๐จ๐๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐๐ง features over 20 different text channels of referee topics ranging from nfhs-talk, pro-rules-talk, ncaa-womenโs-talk, communication-rapid-responses, mindset-mental-performance, fitness-nutrition, game-management-situations, play-sharing-channel, and more that are already populated with great discussion content you can scroll through. โฃ
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There are also voice channels available for officials to organize meetings and have discussions in real-time to enhance the interactions and education. (๐พ๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐ข๐๐๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐ค๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ค๐ง-๐ซ๐ค๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ๐๐ก)โฃ
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In this episode, we introduce ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป Originals like ๐๐ค ๐๐๐๐จ๐๐๐จ๐ค๐ฃ, ๐๐๐ง๐ค๐ช๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐จ, ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐ค๐ค๐ก, ๐พ๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐พ๐ค๐๐๐ ๐ฟโ๐จ ๐พ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ฉ, ๐พ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ฉ๐จ๐๐๐ ๐พ๐ค๐ฃ๐ซ๐๐ง๐จ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ, ๐๐ค๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ข ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐พ๐ค๐ข๐ข๐ช๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐ฎ, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐พ๐ค๐๐๐ ๐ฟ, and more. We also talk about the inspiration behind our decision to pivot to ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป and everything that is included in each tier-๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐. โฃ
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If our content has helped you become a better basketball official or brought you any ๐ซ๐๐ก๐ช๐ in the past we hope you can find a tier that meets your developmental needs. โฃ
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If any official or coach has questions and would like to discuss each tier in more detail, please call or text me directly at ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฑ.๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ.๐ฌ๐ด๐ฏ๐ฐโฃ. Thank you for listening and have a great rest of your day!โฃ
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๐๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ โฃ
https://youtu.be/dtmeS7R_hfYโฃ
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๐๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ท๐ผ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป/๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑโฃ
https://www.patreon.com/crownrefs

Jun 27, 2021 โข 37min
#159 The Crown Refs Community News Show | with Zack Murphy | NBA MultiVerse/Team store/Camp season
๐๐๐ก๐๐ค๐ข๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ค๐ช๐ง ๐ฃ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐๐ค๐ฌ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ค๐๐ ๐ค๐ ๐จ๐๐๐จ๐ค๐ฃ ๐ฏ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐พ๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐ค๐๐๐๐จ๐ฉ!โฃ
In Episode One of the Crown Refs Community News Show, Zack, and Paul discuss recent events under the Crown Refs umbrella. Paul speaks on the NBA multiverse poster and its origins, his experiences meeting some of the Crown Community at Roger Ayersโ camp, the brand new Crown Refs Team Store and Zack shares his experience at Eric Lewisโs ETA Camp! โฃ
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Toward the end, we get a brief sneak peek of the big things that are coming next in Season 4 of Crown Refs Content. โฃ
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๐ง๐ฒ๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ธ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ โฃ
http://sideline.bsnsports.com/schools/new_york/hartsdale/crown-refsโฃ

Jun 6, 2021 โข 13min
#158 Abuse Culture | A candid conversation following multiple ejections
We as officials have to start documenting the verbal abuse more often to raise awareness on the issue of disrespect towards officials. โฃ
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This episode was recorded immediately after we canceled the game because a coach and fan refused to leave the gum following their ejection. โฃ
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We had a chance to interview the site supervisor to hear his thoughts and reactions to the situation and then had a candid conversation with the assistant coach of the team that caused the game to get canceled. โฃ
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Let us know what you think of this episode on social or at crownrefs@gmail.comโฃ
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๐พ๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐ฉ๐ค๐ง๐โฃ
http://sideline.bsnsports.com/schools/new_york/hartsdale/crown-refs

May 15, 2021 โข 57min
#157 The Wonderful Women of Officiating | Maia Chaka | Virginia Beach | Episode 5
๐๐๐ก๐๐ค๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ค โ๐๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐๐ช๐ก ๐๐ค๐ข๐๐ฃ ๐ค๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐โ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐.โฃ
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Maia recently made national headlines by becoming the second female official hired into the NFL. But her rise to the top did not happen overnight as she steadily grinder her way for 15 years to get to this point.โฃ
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She worked 3 years as a high school official before catapulting directly into the NCAA Division 1 ranks where she spent 10 years honing her craft at the collegiate level. โฃ
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She was also a part of the NFL developmental training program for 7 years receiving guidance on the differences between pro vs. college rules and being mentored by some of the NFLโs best teachers. โฃ
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Her breakthrough as a football official happened when she became a certified basketball official learning from NBA legends Leroy Richardson and Tony Brothers. This mentorship and introduction to a new set of rules gave her added toughness and swagger that she didn't know existed within her. She would rise to also become a Division 1 basketball official in the MEAC conference.โฃ
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In this episode, Maia goes into detail about what she loves about officiating, how to overcome mistakes, and what the impact of this moment means to her. โฃ
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She also elaborates on the positive influence of her mentors, how to block out negative voices, and advice for officials who are frustrated with their careers.

May 13, 2021 โข 1h 29min
#156 The Wonderful Women of Officiating | Natasha Camy | Philadelphia | Episode 4
๐ช๐ฒ๐น๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐๐ผ โ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ช๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ณ๐๐น ๐ช๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ดโ ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ก๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐.โฃ
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Natasha is a super talented 8-year official from the great city of brotherly love, who is extremely passionate about officiating and giving back to the game.โฃ
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Natasha is no stranger to Division 1 basketball as she was a former player at Widener University from 2006-2010. Sheโs also officiating in 15 Division 1 conferences including: BIG 10, SEC, ACC, BIG 12, CUSA, BIG EAST, AMERICAN, SUN BELT, A10, CAA, MAAC, PATRIOT, AMERICA EAST, IVY, & NEC. โฃ
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Some of the officials who inspired her were Dee Kantner, Joey Crawford, Tina Napier, Laura Morris, Rachelle Jones, Gina Cross, Felicia Grinter, Beverly Roberts, Maj Forsberg, & Brian Garland. Natasha is determined to grow the Women's game in all forms through media, exposure, stories, quality officials.โฃ
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In this episode, Natasha gives us tactical advice on how to overcome setbacks and turn your failures into learnings. She shares some of her success stories and breakthroughs on when the light bulb finally went off for her. โฃ
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Some other very important topics that we discussed are equality, diversity, the expansion of officiating, and the importance of creating a true pipeline for womenโs officials.โฃ
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๐บ ๐ง๐ผ ๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฐ๐ตโฃ
https://youtu.be/klViekGGrw8โฃ